In the twenty-first century teens don’t always obey their parents. But who would want to obey someone who’s always nagging, pushing, and lecturing? Take out the trash, do the dishes, clean your room, do this, do that – common commands from parents. But is there anything of value in what they say?

“I was a kid once.” How many times have you heard that phrase? Most parents see life experience in terms of age. They’ve been in a classroom with a teacher who maybe just didn’t explain something quite right. They’ve been anxious about a special person who maybe kind of likes them back. They’ve seen a lot of the same things and done a lot of the same things we have, but maybe not in the same way as us. What’s the difference?

We live in a changing world where technology is discovered and being a teen means something slightly different as it did when our parents were teens. They grew up without mp3 players, cell phones, the Internet, and many other conveniences we’ve come to accept as part of our civilized world. When parents were our age, they had to listen to the radio to hear their favorite songs or carry a Walkman or watch MTV – back when it was ONLY music videos. A cell phone in their time was enormous, and the Internet in someone’s home was very rare! Things were very different.

We also have to remember that our grandparents – our parents’ parents – grew up in an extremely different time than our generation, not only our generation, but also our parents’ generation. Our parents grew up under what their parents taught them, and when they raised us they brought over values they learned from their parents. They remember what worked for them when they were growing up, and teach and discipline us the same way. Sometimes it’s for the positive, and sometimes it’s for the negative, but our parents change the way they think based on what their parents said and did.

If parents don’t understand us, it could be because we don’t understand them. Teens need to realize how things have changed since the time they were our age. Not only realize, but use that information to help us better communicate with them. Arguments between parents and kids are started because of things that aren’t correctly communicated between parents to kids and vice versa.

Parents and kids have always disagreed. As long as times change, so do the generations’ ways of thinking. When parents pass things on to their kids, they change that way of thinking to what they know and feel is right. So when parents don’t seem to understand us, but say they know what it’s like to be a teenager, before you say they don’t, remember that they do know what it’s like, but that it was slightly different for them.